At the Crossroads of Epochs: Serbian Literary Periodicals 1850–1860

Milinčević, Vaso

На раскршћу епоха: српски књижевни часописи 1850–1860.

Publisher:

Beograd: Institut za književnost i umetnost, Vuk Karadžić;
1979

Cataloguing data:

Summary:

This book encompasses monographic treatments of six literary magazines initiated in the 1850’s (Sedmica [Seven], Vojvođanka [Maid of Vojvodina], Književni dodatak Južne pčele [The Literary Supplement of Southern Bee], Šumadinče [Little Šumadinian], Fruškogorka [Maid of Fruška Gora] and the second series of Podunavka [Maid of the Danube Basin]), as well as a treatise on the content and the literary policy of the already institutionalised Letopis Matice srpske [The Annals of Matica srpska] during the period between 1850 and 1859.

In the introductory text (“A word in advance”), the author, proceeding from the view that “an indicator of the degree of literary life” cannot be determined solely on the basis of the number of books published, but that there are periods when it is precisely periodicals that take over this function, points to the potential significance of the research that is to follow, thus establishing its framework and pointing to its presumed outcomes.

The methodological approach is adjusted to each individual periodical, depending on its characteristics: in the case of Letopis, the starting point was a review of the editorial policies and the general character of the periodical under four different editors (Jovan Subotić, Jakov Ignjatović, Subot Mladenović and Jovan Đorđević), in most other cases, the presentation was structured as an overview of the literary genres and species featured, that is, the literary-linguistic issues dealt with by the given periodical, whereas in the case of those with the shortest lifespan (such as Šumadinče and Fruškogorka), it is based on unique descriptions of each individual issue. A particular quality of this book are its numerous analyses of various literary texts published in the periodicals dealt with, due to the author’s striving, by providing a literary portrait of each of these periodicals, “to differentiate between living heritage and dead sources”.

Keywords:

Sedmica, Vojvođanka, Književni dodatak Južne pčele, Šumadinče, Fruškogorka and the second series of Podunavka, Letopis Matice srpske